Communications Blog

2/6/17 - Betsy DeVos vote tomorrow!

Fellow Democrats – there are some huge events in the world of education happening right now, in Washington DC and here in our Washington State legislature. Here are two we’ve picked out for you:

1. Nationally - Last chance to Stop the Confirmation of Betsy DeVos!

The Republicans in the Senate have scheduled Trump’s nominee for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, for a vote as soon as possible on Tuesday afternoon. Two Republicans have already broken with their party to oppose DeVos – if we can flip one more, we can stop this terrible nomination from impacting our kids, teachers and schools.

Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and the rest of the Senate Democrats plan to hold the Senate floor all night tonight to delay the vote and give people more time to make phone calls. Senate staff are saying that they’re getting record numbers of phone calls – more than 5 million calls from across the country in the past week - and we need to keep up the pressure!

DeVos has spent her career fighting for anti-public education policies. She’s woefully unqualified for the position, with deep unfamiliarity with critical issues around special education, funding, teacher evaluation and other issues. And more than 85,000 Washingtonians have already called and written to our own Senators to support their NO vote against DeVos.

The Republicans aren’t sitting on their hands – DeVos and her billionaire buddies are spending huge amounts of money to manufacture false support for her candidacy!

We need to call Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee of Utah and let them know Betsy DeVos is WRONG for American schools – PLEASE CALL:

Office of Sen. Orrin Hatch: 202-224-5251

Office of Sen. Mike Lee: 202-224-5444

The news makes it clear – the pressure to oppose DeVos is building. Let’s do our part! Here are just three of hundreds of articles talking about real people taking real action:

Tonight, the House Appropriations Committee in our state House of Representatives is holding a hearing on two important education bills – the Republican plan to cut funding for schools across the state, which is SB 5607, and the Democratic plan to raise teacher salaries and fully fund education, HB 1843.

The Republican plan would raise the largest property tax increase in state history on middle class families, and hurt teachers and students by cutting standards across the state and opening the door to privatization of our entire school system. By contrast, the Democratic plan would invest $7.5 billion in raising teacher salaries, lowering class sizes, and reducing local levies to save local taxpayers money on their property tax bills. While the Republican bill is paid for with a regressive property tax, the Democratic proposal could be paid for with a capital gains tax on the richest 1%, a carbon tax on big polluting corporations, reforming our B&O tax or closing tax breaks.

At the hearing, teachers, parents, school administers, and education advocates all weighed in to support the Democratic proposal. But our legislators need to hear from you too. Both bills are in the House Appropriations Committee – the phone numbers of the members of the committee are available on our website

Vincent Buys-RLD 42, Lynden360-786-7854

Michelle Caldier-RLD 26, Port Orrchard360-786-7802

Bruce Chandler-RLD 15, Granger360-786-7960

Cary Condotta-RLD 12, Wenatchee360-786-7954

Larry Haler-RLD 8, Richland360-786-7986

Paul Harris-RLD 17, Vancouver360-786-7976

Drew MacEwen-RLD 35, Union360-786-7902

Matt Manweller-RLD 13, Ellensburg360-786-7808

Terry Nealey-RLD 16, Dayton360-786-7828

Joe Schmick-RLD 9, Colfax360-786-7844

Drew Stokesbary-RLD 31, Auburn360-786-7846

David Taylor-RLD 15, Moxee360-786-7874

Brandon Vick-RLD 18, Felida360-786-7850

Mike Volz-RLD 6, Spokane360-786-7922

J.T. Wilcox-RLD 2, Yelm360-786-7912

Steve Bergquist-DLD 11, Renton360-786-7862

Eileen Cody-DLD 34, Seattle360-786-7978

Joe Fitzgibbon-DLD 34, Burien360-786-7952

Drew Hansen-DLD 23, Bainbridge Island360-786-7842

Zack Hudgins-DLD 11, Tukwila360-786-7956

Laurie Jinkins-DLD 27, Tacoma360-786-7930

Ruth Kagi-DLD 32, Seattle360-786-7910

Kristine Lytton-DLD 40, Anacortes360-786-7800

Timm Ormsby-DLD 3, Spokane360-786-7946

Eric Pettigrew-DLD 37, Seattle360-786-7838

Gerry Pollet-DLD 46, Seattle360-786-7886

June Robinson-DLD 38, Everett360-786-7864

David Sawyer-DLD 29, Parkland360-786-7906

Tana Senn-DLD 41, Mercer Island360-786-7894

Larry Springer-DLD 45, Kirkland360-786-7822

Derek Stanford-DLD 1, Bothell 360-786-7928

Pat Sullivan-DLD 47, Covington360-786-7858

Steve Tharinger-DLD 24, Dungeness360-786-7904

CALL and let them know that you support the HB 1843, the Democratic plan to improve our schools, not the GOP Senate plan to cut funding for hundreds of thousands of Washington students and punish our teachers.

Thanks for reading– you can reach us at communications@wa-democrats.org with your thoughts and feedback. If you value and appreciate this communication, let us know!

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